Beginning at the Ending
by TheRogueParadox
Summary: Even though Al and Ed made it through the Promised Day, Ed is still having nightmares that make him wake up screaming. When he starts talking in another language in his sleep, Al searches for answers. The answer is one neither expected: Ed is suffering from problems he left untied in another life. Now Inuyasha is loose and looking for Kagome. And Al thought Ed was a handful!
1. Chapter 1

_._

 _when you broke my heart_

 _it scattered across the world_

 _in a million shards_

 _._

* * *

Ling had always had the tendency to go around acting as if he owned the world, but that habit seemed to get particularly worse whenever he happened to visit the Elric brothers. Ed kept asking why Ling even wanted to visit them in the first place, but everyone knew the reason. He just enjoyed messing with Ed.

"Ling, I really don't think you should-" Al said as he chased the determined prince down the hall.

"Nonsense!" Ling said with a wide grin and wave of his hand. "Why wouldn't he want to see his future brother-in-law?"

"Well, it's just, he's sleeping, and lately he's been having these really nasty dreams-" But before Al could say anything else, Ling had burst the door to Ed's bedroom open.

"Edward! My bosom friend! How are you this fine morning?"

"Go away," Ed muttered, waving a hand at Ling and dragging a pillow over his head.

"But Edward! It's already nine, and it's a lovely day! How can you still be abed at this hour?" With that, Ling plucked the pillow off of Ed's head.

Ed reached around for a minute trying to find the pillow, but when he realized it was gone, he shot up into a sitting position, glaring at Ling. Al took a step back. He knew Ed had never been a morning person, but lately Ed had been downright terrifying in his sleep. Even now, Ed was cracking his knuckles and holding his hands like he expected them to have claws.

"Are you deaf?" he said in a low tone. Ling smiled.

"But my dear Edward-"

"I _said_ get the hell out, Koga, now GET. THE. HELL. OUT!" Ed said, yanking the pillow from Ling and throwing himself back to the bed with the pillow over his head. Al expected Ling to continue antagonizing Ed, but instead, he raised an eyebrow, turned around, and left the room.

"Where did he hear that?" he said to Al once they were in the hall. Al blinked.

"Hear what?"

"Koga. Why did he call me that? Where did he hear it?"

Al sighed. "I don't know. He's been saying a lot of nonsense in his sleep lately. Sometimes he starts sounding like he's speaking another language, but I've never heard it before."

"It's not nonsense, Al," Ling said, glacing back at Ed's bedroom door. "Koga is another one of my names. But only my most trusted advisors know it." He paused and looked back up at Alphonse. "Koga is the name I had in a past life."

Al frowned. "But how would Brother know it?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Ling said, crossing his arms. "Either someone leaked the information and it found its way to Ed, or..." Ling paused and licked his lips. "Or he knew me in this past life of mine."

"But that's-" Al cut himself off before he could say "impossible," for fear of sounding rude. He had always thought the idea of reincarnation sounded ridiculous, but he knew from his many conversations with Mei that it was taken very seriously in Xing. Ling quirked an eyebrow at Al, seeming to know what Al had almost said anyway.

"I know what most Amestrians think of reincarnation," Ling said with a smirk. "But the woman who told me of my past life is very wise, and I found a lot of peace after I talked with her. Isn't it worth trying if it could cure your brother of these nightmares?"

Al bit his lip. He couldn't argue with that. Even the most ridiculous theories would be worth it if they helped prevent Ed from suffering more. "He'll never agree to it though," Al said with a shake of his head. "Brother will just say it's all baloney and he's fine."

"Then we won't tell him we're meeting my advisor," Ling said with a smirk. "You'll just have a regular visit with my sister, and we'll bump into my advisor while we're there."

"Oh boy," Al muttered as he felt the blood drain from his face. He knew he was somehow going to get dragged into this crazy plan, but if Ed figured it out before they were done, heads were gonna roll.

"Don't worry about it," Ling said with a wide smile and a wave of his hand. "I'll take care of it all. You just convince your brother to come with you to Xing."

"You're not… You're not just doing this to annoy him, are you?" Al said, narrowing his eyes. Ling dropped his smile and gave Al a hard stare.

"Alphonse, as much as I may play around with annoying your brother, I do honestly care about him," he said. "And I owe him my life. If it's within my power to make Ed's life better, then I will do it, no matter the hardship."

Ling paused and let the words hang in the air for a minute before he adopted his mischevious smirk again. "But if I get to annoy him in the process, that's just a bonus perk!"

"Oh geez," Al muttered with a roll of his eyes. Those two really were terrible around each other. Ling then made his excuses for "preparations" and ran off, but Al knew that was just his polite way of saying he was going to raid their kitchen. Al decided he would worry about that later and turned back to Ed's room. He was still worried about Ed. Ed wouldn't mind if Al just checked on him one more time. The door creaked as Al opened it, and he tiptoed inside.

Ed was tangled in the blankets, frowning and clutching at his left shoulder. Al blinked. His left? But why would he be clutching that side when it had been his right arm that had been automail for so many years?

"Brother?" Al said softly. Ed's frown deepened.

"Brother," he repeated, mumbling in his sleep. "Sesshōmaru?"

Al frowned. There was the gibberish again. It sounded like some sort of question, but Al had no idea how to answer it. Well, when in doubt, just go with it. "Um… Yes?"

Ed made a low sound in the back of his throat. Was he… Was he growling? Al took a step back. Maybe yes was the wrong answer.

"Don't you dare..." Ed muttered. "Don't you _dare_ hurt her."

"Hurt who, Brother?" Was he talking about Winry? But why would he ever think Al would want to hurt Winry? Ed huffed in his sleep and rolled over. Al sighed and walked up to the bed. "I just want to help. Just tell me how to help you. What can I do?"

"Find Kagome," Ed muttered before pulling the covers over his head.

* * *

Convincing Ed to go to Xing ended up being less difficult than Al thought. Of course, Ed still grumbled all the way, but he at least went. Al decided to be grateful for the little things.

One day, Mei got wrapped up in some of her political work, and Ed (being Ed) had slept in, so Al was left with no one to occupy his time. He ended up wandering the palace aimlessly, looking at the various pieces of art on the walls.

Eventually he found that his feet had taken him to a courtyard. It was bright and cheerful, with plants blooming all around. In the center of the courtyard was a large tree with an almond shaped scar on its trunk. Al found himself drawn to it, like the tree was calling to him. Something about it seemed familiar, like maybe it reminded him of the tree that had grown next to their house when he was little.

"Al! Al, where'd you run off to? Al! Where are- Ah!" Al turned, and Ed was coming into the courtyard. "C'mon Al, let's get out-" He stopped as he looked at the tree, a frown forming on his face.

"What's that?"

"It's a tree, silly," Al said with a laugh as he looked back at the tree.

"I know, but..." Ed shook his head. "I don't like it. Something about here feels dangerous."

"You're just paranoid." Al rolled his eyes. "It feels lovely here. It's beautiful."

"I'm not saying the tree is bad, I'm saying-" Ed cut off with a grunt as he grabbed the left side of his chest.

"Ah, I see you two found the great tree on your own," came a voice behind them. Al turned to see Ling standing in the doorway to the courtyard with a smirk. Next to him was a woman who wasn't quite old enough to be a grandmother, but not quite young enough to be a mother.

 _Probably about the same age our mom would be,_ Al thought to himself. He knew better than to say something like that out loud when Ed was around. But Ed seemed to notice too, his breath calming as he straightened his posture and let go of his shoulder. She was Xingese with dark hair and dark eyes, so she looked nothing like their mother, but something about her felt motherly. Like she was the kind of woman who was everyone's mother.

"This is Rue," Ling said, gesturing to the woman. "She's the one I was telling you about, Al."

"Huh?" Al looked at the woman again. This was the wise advisor Ling had been telling him about?

"Ling is too boastful," Rue said with a smile and shake of her head. "It's not me you want to be talking to, it's The Great Tree. I'm merely its translator."

"Al, what's going on?" Ed narrowed his eyes and glanced over to Al. Al let out a nervous chuckle.

"Well, Ling just thought that this might be able to help with some of your recent nightmares."

"I'm not going to talk to a tree about how I'm sleeping at night!" Ed groaned and threw his hands in the air. Meanwhile Rue was walking through the courtyard to place a hand on the trunk of the tree. Ed moved to storm out of the courtyard.

"The tree was wondering if you're still having the nightmares about an arrow piercing your heart," Rue said. Ed stopped, grabbing the left side of his chest again. He spun around.

"How do you know that?"

"I don't. The tree does. The tree says you had the same nightmares in your last life as well."

Ed groaned and looked over to Al. "Really, Al? Reincarnation?"

"Maybe just listen," Al said, glancing between Ed and the tree. "If it helps, then it helps. And if it doesn't, then I'll just let it go, okay?"

Ed sighed. "Fine. What else does the tree say, then?"

Rue smiled. "You may want to sit down. The tree says you two share a lot of history."

"How?" Ed frowned. "I've never seen that tree before in my life."

"This life," Rue corrected. "Besides, trees are world straddlers. They're in many worlds at once. They're the glue that holds our universes together. It also means that they see many things, many people. The tree doesn't see you based on your body. It sees your soul and recognizes you from another lifetime, another world."

Ed shot Al a glare, as if silently lecturing his younger brother for making him stay. Al gave him a weak grin and shrugged.

"The tree says you come from another world where there was magic. You were born between magic and humans, and fell in love with a human. But then the two of you had a misunderstanding, and she used her magic to bind you to this tree.

"Eventually, she came back-" Rue frowned and shook her head. "No. She… She reincarnated, and then traveled through time to find you again. You're having nightmares because things were left unresolved between the two of you when she died. You need to find her and clear the air between the two of you."

Ed frowned. "So, what, she's traveling through time or something to find me?" He waved his hand around in the air as if girls just regularly floated through the ether if one was only willing to pull them out.

"No," Rue said with a laugh. "Souls don't know time. They can come from the future and reincarnate in the past. She's reincarnated as well. You need to figure out who she is."

"And how exactly do I do that?"

"You left many people unresolved in your last life when you died, and many of them have followed you to continue supporting you on your journey. They will help you, if you ask. The tree says you also need to learn how to talk to them so they remember. Come forward and place your hand on the tree, and it will tell you how."

Ed narrowed his eyes. "I… I don't think so."

"You're only afraid because your subconsconscious is worried you'll be bound again. Come, it's perfectly safe."

"Just try, Brother," Al said, pleading with wide eyes. "Just try. Please."

"Fine." Ed groaned and went over to the tree. He reached his left hand out towards the trunk, slightly pulled it back, then shook his head and pressed it against the bark.

The courtyard was completely silent for a moment, aside from a gust of wind that swept through. Ed's braid tossed in the wind, but he didn't seem to notice.

Then Ed cried out as if he had been struck by something. Al rushed forward a few steps, but Rue gesturned at him to stay put. Al could feel his legs straining to go to Ed and support him. Ed was in pain. Al hated just letting him suffer through that.

After another minute, Ed pulled his hand away from the tree, his head hanging. Al wanted to immediately ask if Ed was okay, but something about Ed felt… off. Dangerous. Ed reached up and pulled out his braid so his hair hung loose over his shoulders.

"Uh… Ed? Brother?" Al said, taking another step towards Ed. When Ed turned around, he was looking at Al with a fierce gaze that Al wasn't used to having directed at him.

"If you're talking to me, kid, ya got the wrong person," Ed said with a crack of his knuckles. "'Cause I ain't this Ed guy."

"Well," Al said with a lick of his lips. "Then who are you?" Ed smirked as if that was exactly the question he had been waiting for.

"Inuyasha."

* * *

 **Before you get upset with me about another fanfic... I know. I'm with you guys, honestly. But I've been writing so much original fiction lately, and I really needed a chance to write without worrying about hitting plot points or avoiding adverbs, and all that stuff that ends up stressing me out. So I needed a form of writing that was more relaxing than my writing, if that makes sense. And I thought about how I'd been watching Inuyasha lately, and how I had this idea for a crossover, and... Well, since I couldn't find anything to _read_ like this, I figured writing it was my next best bet. **

**Anyway, don't expect stellar prose or anything from this. It's literally just the first thing that comes to my head for my own personal amusement, so who knows where this will go. I already have a second chapter in waiting though, so I won't just leave you hanging here.**

 **Yes, another reincarnation/love story, in yet another crossover that is out of date/old/not popular. I have a problem, okay?**


	2. Chapter 2

Al spun to look at Rue. "What did you _do_?" he yelped. "You were supposed to make him better, not worse!"

"I did not do anything." Rue looked surprised as well and glanced back towards the tree. "The tree must have decided that he needed to regress in order to move forward. This does not happen often."

"Well… Unregress him! Make him go back!"

"Hey, kid," Ed said, and Al turned to look at him with tears in his eyes. Ed was scrunching up his face like he was in pain. "Could ya tone it down? You're hurting my ears."

Ed then blinked as if realizing something, and reached up to grab both his ears. His face paled. He pulled his hand away and looked down at his hands, frantically flexing his fingers.

"No," Ed muttered. He began patting himself all over his body as if he had misplaced something. "No no no no. Human? I can't be human! Why did-"

"Inuyasha," Rue said, and Ed turned to look at her. "You have reincarnated. You're only here temporarily because you left things unfinished in your lifetime, and it's hindering you in this lifetime."

Ed hung his head as if he was a child being scolded. Rue smiled at him and stepped away from the tree.

"The young man over there is Alphonse," she said, gesturing towards Al with one hand. Ed looked at him with a confused expression, and Al felt the tears inside him press harder to get out. Whatever had happened, the person in front of him was not his brother anymore.

"He's your brother in this lifetime," Rue continued. "I suggest you tell him what you're looking for. He'll help you find it." With that, she left the courtyard, and Al and Ed were left staring at each other. Ed sighed, and Al looked towards the ground. He knew that if he kept looking at Ed, he would end up crying for sure.

"Brothers, huh?" Ed finally said with a sigh. Al nodded silently. "Okay, Alphonse."

That was what finally made the tears spill out, despite Al's best attempts to hold it back. Ed never called him Alphonse, not unless he was mad. He wasn't even pronouncing it the same way now, it had come out more lyrical, with a slight slur on the R and S, making it sound a little like "Aruphonsu."

"Hey, wait, don't cry!" Ed yelped. "What did I do?"

"Where's Ed?" Al choked out between sobs. "Is he ever coming back?" Ed was silent for a long minute, and Al was crying so hard he couldn't even see what Ed was doing.

"This Ed guy is your brother, huh?" Al just nodded, unable to speak. There was a soft padding, and then there was a hand on Al's shoulder.

"Hey," came Ed's soft voice, and Al sniffled to look up at Ed standing right in front of him. Ed let out a small sigh. "It's okay. He'll be back. I'm just here to fix a couple things, okay?"

"How do you know?" Al said in a watery voice.

"Because I saw someone else do this once," Ed said with a pained hint of a smile. "I can't stay here forever. I'm dead. It's not my life to live."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The two looked at each other before Al finally sighed and wiped his tears away with a nod. "Okay. What was your name again?"

"Inuyasha."

"Inuyasha," Al repeated, trying the word out himself. It reminded him a little of Mei's language, but not quite. "So what exactly do we need to do?"

"Kagome," Inuyasha said without hesitation. "She was a,uh… A friend of mine. We got seperated, so I never got to say-" Inuyasha coughed and cut himself off. "Well, I need to talk to her."

"Okay, how do we find her?" Al had no idea where to even start when looking for a reincarnation of someone. They looked and sounded completely different, he assumed, and they wouldn't even remember that lifetime.

"Well," Inuyasha frowned and scratched his head. "She'd probably be somewhere near me. She's too stubborn to leave. We used to argue a lot. Whenever she got mad, she'd just tell me to-" Inuyasha frowned and waved his hand. "Wait, you wouldn't understand that. She hurt me a lot, okay?"

 _And you clearly were in love with her,_ Al said silently to himself. It was funny how Inuyasha was so different from Ed, but similar enough that he was just as easy for Al to read.

"Actually, that sounds a lot like a girl we know," Al said. "You're engaged to her."

Inuyasha turned a bright shade of pink and spluttered. "I-I-I'm ** _what_**?"

"Took you long enough, too," Al muttered under his breath. He sat down on one of the courtyard benches with a sigh and looked up at Inuyasha. "So, what, do we just go see her, you talk to her, and you'll be better?"

"I quess so," Inuyasha said with a shrug. "I'm not entirely sure how this all works."

A moment of silence passed before Inuyasha finally sighed and sat down on the bench next to Al. "It's weird that I have a brother who actually cares about me. You've sure changed a lot."

Al looked over at him with a frown. "Wait, you mean you think I'm the reincarnation of your brother?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "You gotta be. Who else would you be? You're way nicer than him, though. I guess being raised by humans did you a lot of good."

"What, he was awful?"

Inuyasha let out a short laugh that reminded Al a little of a bark. "Bad? The guy was constantly trying to kill me!"

Al felt the blood drain from his face. He would never want to kill Ed, ever. But at the same time, Inuyasha's words struck at something deep inside of him, like he almost could remember a time where he had tried to kill Ed. Or Inuyasha, really.

"So, what, could you make me regress like you?"

Inuyasha stopped laughing and got serious again. "I could, yeah. But trust me, you don't want a wild Sesshōmaru rampaging your world. You've changed for the better, kid, trust me."

"Sesshōmaru," Al said, testing the strange foreign word.

"It means something along the lines of… Ah, I guess 'circle of death'?" Inuyasha said, scratching his head. "He proved himself when he was a kid, so he got a scary name when he was an adult."

"Wait, the kids in your world don't have names?"

"Nah, they've got names," Inuyasha said with a shake of his head. "They just get a placeholder name until they grow up. Then they get a name that suits them at their naming ceremony."

"Oh," Al blinked and thought over the concept. It would be weird to have a name change like that after growing up with one name. But it also probably meant that names fit people perfectly. Al shuddered. He didn't want to think about what it took to earn a name like 'circle of death.' It sounded like a heavy name to carry.

 _A heavy name…_ Al blinked. Actually, the naming customs in Inuyasha's world weren't entirely as weird as what Al had thought. After all, Ed had gone through a similar process when he'd become a state alchemist.

"What about you?"

"Hm?" Inuyasha blinked and looked over at Al.

"What's your name mean?"

"Oh." Inuyasha looked away from Al again, staring at the tree in the middle of the courtyard. "It means 'dog demon.'"

Al frowned. "How'd you earn a name like that?"

There was such a long silence after he spoke that Al was sure Inuyasha wasn't going to answer him. He wasn't sure why exactly Inuyasha was so uncomfortable at the question, but he didn't want to press if Inuyasha didn't want to talk about it.

"I didn't earn it," Inuyasha said suddenly. "I never had a naming ceremony. It's my childhood name."

Al stayed quiet for a while after that. The issue clearly bothered Inuyasha, though Al didn't entirely understand the meaning of it all.

"Well," Al said after minute, hesitantly. "I mean, if it means anything to you, you got a second name in this life, and only the most impressive people get them here."

Inuyasha smirked a little. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Fullmetal."

Inuyasha thought on it for a minute before he nodded in approval. He was still quiet, but something seemed a little better about him. He was smiling ever so slightly, and seemed almost… lighter, in a way.

"Hey," he said after another minute. When Al looked at him, he had an incredibly sad expression on his face. "If this is another lifetime, then… Do I have a mom somewhere around that I could visit?"

"Uh..." Al frowned and looked at the ground with a deep sigh. How was he supposed to answer a question like that? But before he could try to stumble his way through something, Inuyasha sighed and shook his head.

"I guess it figures that I would lose her here too," he said softly.

Al kept his mouth shut, unsure what to say, how to explain everything they had been through just because of missing their mother. The wind whipped through the courtyard again, blowing blond hair all around Inuyasha's face, and Al realized that even though Inuyasha wasn't his brother, he could see the Ed in Inuyasha and the Inuyasha in Ed.

"Ah, it doesn't matter anyway," Inuyasha said after a minute, shaking his head and standing up. "We're supposed to be looking for Kagome, not trying to fix childhoods. So where do we go next, Alphonse?"

Inuyasha held a hand out to Al and pulled him to his feet. Al found that he didn't mind Inuyasha saying his name so differently that time. He smiled at the strange person who was both his brother and not.

"I guess we go home."

* * *

 **I think I'm being clever with all my clues and such, but I'm probably being totally obvious instead. Eh, whatever. Feel free to let me know any hunches you have while reading through this. I'm at least having fun watching those two bumbling around each other like idiots.**


	3. Chapter 3

Al did his best to help Inuyasha avoid people for the rest of the day. He wasn't entirely sure how they were going to make "Ed" seem normal to everyone when he didn't know pretty much anything about his own life, but they could at least buy time until they had a better plan on what to do.

The "lay low" plan ended up going out the window though when dinner rolled around. As guests, Ed and Al had been getting served an elaborate dinner every night as a sort of hospitality custom. Since the whole point of the dinner was them, it seemed rude to try and skip it in favor of staying cooped up in their room.

Besides, Al hadn't seen Mei all day, and he was starting to wonder how she was doing.

But Ling was already down at dinner himself, cheerfully greeting the two brothers when they appeared. As soon as Ling started talking, Inuyasha bristled, as if he was a dog backed into a corner.

Considering what Al had seen of Inuyasha so far, he was beginning to wonder if a name that meant "dog demon" was referencing Inuyasha's behavior.

"What is it?" Al hissed under his breath as the two of them sat down.

"He sounds _exactly_ like Koga," Inuyasha snarled. "I hate that guy."

Al blinked. "Oh, yeah, Koga. He said that was his past life. So you two really did know each other?"

Inuyasha snapped his head to Al, looking even more agitated. "If he really is that stupid wolf idiot, then I want nothing to do with him!"

The words ended up coming out loud enough for everyone to hear, and a hush fell over the room, even making Ling pause in his happy rambling. Al blushed and sank down in his seat. It seemed that Inuyasha was even less capable of social standards than Ed, and that was saying something.

"So I take it that you gained some valuable knowledge from the great tree after all," Ling said, raising an eyebrow at the brothers.

"Yes, thank you very-" Al started, but was cut off by Inuyasha.

"I don't need some stupid wolf trying to annoy me in every single life I ever have, so butt out now before I _make_ ya butt out, got it?" Inuyasha had jumped to his feet and was glaring daggers at Ling across the table.

"Inuyasha!" Al hissed. He reached out and tugged on Inuyasha's sleeve to make him sit down again. Ling sat staring at Inuyasha with a stunned expression.

After a minute of silence, Ling started to laugh. His laughs got louder and louder until he was practically crying. It certainly wasn't the sort of reaction Al would expect from having a guest insult him in his own house.

"I thought we shared a past history, but I never expected you to regress!" Ling finally said when he managed to compose himself enough to speak. "It seems you have more problems to work out with me than I originally thought!"

Inuyasha jumped to his feet again, eyes blazing. "If you think I came back because of you, then you're even more of an idiot than I thought!" he snapped.

"By all means," Ling said with a wave of his hand as he stood up and came to stand next to Inuyasha. "It would seem that you know more about our shared history than I do right now, so feel free to enlighten me. What did I do that made you so upset that you're mad even in the next lifetime?"

Inuyasha growled and bristled further, and Al was certain that the "dog" part of his name wasn't a coincidence. Neither was the "demon" part, judging by Inuyasha's temper. Al wondered if that was just something that followed his brother around in every life.

"Um, maybe we could just have dinner…?" Al said with a nervous laugh. Inuyasha and Ling seemed to pay no attention to him.

"I got no reason to explain myself to someone like you," Inuyasha snapped. "If you want to know what happened so bad, then go ahead and regress yourself."

"I would," Ling said with a careless shrug. "I've been trying to learn how to regress for years now, but alas. It seems that the Fullmetal Alchemist continues to be a genius ahead of the rest of us, yet again."

"You wanna regress, I can make you regress. Your tree taught me how," Inuyasha growled, cracking his knuckles. "And then I wouldn't feel bad kicking your wimpy butt."

Ling stared at Inuyasha for a minute with a stunned expression. "You can trigger a regression?"

"Yeah," Inuyasha said with a smirk. "Jealous?"

"Guys..." Al said, poking at his food. He didn't really expect anyone to listen to him by that point, but he seriously wished they would just stop. He was thankfully saved at that point by a very welcome distraction.

"Alphonse!" A pair of arms were thrown around his neck. "I'm sorry I couldn't spend more time with you today! Did you miss me? I missed you!"

Al turned to smile at Mei, who had buried herself against his neck. The two of them hardly got to spend time together, so she was always so upset whenever work got in the way while Al was visiting. It wasn't as if he minded, though. She was a princess, after all. He knew that she couldn't just stop being a princess every time he showed up.

"Oh, gross."

Al was pulled away from Mei by a famliar, annoying voice. He sighed and turned to look at Inuyasha.

"What?"

"Nothing," Inuyasha said, though it was clear he was still grossed out at Mei being affectionate to Al. "It just figures that you and Rin would find a way to get together."

"Rin?" Al blinked, but Mei had gotten a bright expression as she looked at Inuyasha.

"Oh! Did you know me in my other life, Edward?"

Inuyasha winced at the name with a sigh. "Yeah."

"He apparently also knew me," Ling jumped in with a smirk. "Or hated me, it seems. He regressed when he went to see the great tree."

"Oh!" Mei had pulled away from Al and was looking at Inuyasha with a slightly awed expression. Al pouted and went back to poking at his food. Apparently he wasn't even allowed a distraction from all this reincarnation mess.

"The tree must have thought you're very important," Mei said. Inuyasha winced and looked at the floor.

"Yeah, well, the tree and I have a history, so I guess it thought it… owed me or something," he mumbled.

"How did you know I was Rin?"

"You look just like her," Inuyasha said with a sigh. "It was pretty obvious."

"He can also apparently trigger a regression."

"Oh! I want to try! I've always wanted to regress!"

Al sighed and pushed his chair away from the table with a loud scraping noise. Clearly the rest of dinner was going to be further obsession over reincarnation and regression and how everybody was connected to his brother and so forth.

"I'm going to bed," he announced. Mei and Ling were looking at him with surprised expressions, but Inuyasha was frowning as if he knew something was wrong. It was the most Ed-ish expression Al had seen on him all day.

"Alphonse..."

"It's fine," Al said, cutting Inuyasha off. "I'm just… tired." He knew it was a weak excuse, but he just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. "I'm sorry. Goodnight, everyone."

He thought he had actually gotten away with it once he managed to get halfway down the hallway, when the doors banged open and he heard footsteps running towards him.

"What's up with you?" Inuyasha said. Al kept looking at his feet and avoiding Inuyasha's eyes.

"Nothing," he muttered.

He expected some sort of further probing after that, but Inuyasha was silent. It just reminded Al even further that Inuyasha wasn't Ed, not really. His brother would have known something was wrong, no matter what Al said. He would have kept pressing no matter what, even if it was incredibly annoying.

"Is this just how it's going to be until..." Al trailed off and gestured a hand at Inuyasha. "I don't know, until you figure out… whatever it is you're supposed to figure out?"

Inuyasha frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Al wiped away the tears that were forming at the corners of his eyes. "Are you just going to go around ignoring me like this? Just because I was apparently some awful person in some lifetime I can't remember? Are you just going to hate me until you go back to being Ed?"

Inuyasha made a face. "I never said I hated you—"

"You didn't have to!" Al snapped. "You made it pretty clear!"

"Look, it's not my fault that you want someone paying attention to you all the time!"

Al just stared at Inuyasha with his mouth hanging open for a moment before he snapped his mouth shut and glared.

"You know, I thought it wasn't possible for anyone in the world to be ruder than Ed, but I guess I was wrong," he said. "If you hate me so much, then fine, go ahead and find your Kah… Karo… Kanomen by yourself! Come talk to me when you feel like being my _brother_ again!"

With that, Al turned on his heel and stalked back to his room, leaving a very confused Inuyasha staring dumbly in his wake.

"I think I did something wrong," Inuyasha muttered, reaching up to scratch his head with one finger.

* * *

Inuyasha tried to ignore Al at first, but found that the longer he did, the more there was a ringing sound in his head. It was starting to get so loud that he was having trouble hearing much of anything. Plus there was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that felt like it was telling him to go after Alphonse, go, go now.

He eventually realized that nagging feeling had to be the Ed part of his soul. And the Ed part of his soul was _furious_ at the Inuyasha part of his soul. Inuyasha knew that if he didn't go after Al himself, eventually Ed would just take over again, whether he liked it or not.

So Inuyasha was forced to go find Al and find some way to apologize, even if his pride wanted otherwise.

"Alphonse," Inuyasha said, rapping his knuckles against the door to Al's room. Technically, it was their shared room, but he was pretty sure Al wasn't willing to share at that moment.

"Go away," came the muffled response.

"Look, Alphonse, I… Ah… I'm… Sorry," Inuyasha ground out, clenching his hands into fists. There was a moment of silence.

"Sorry for what?"

Inuyasha stared at the door with wide eyes. That wasn't how this was supposed to go! He was supposed to say sorry, then there was making up, and then everything was back to normal. How was he supposed to explain what he was sorry for when he didn't even know what he'd done?

"For, uh… Being a jerk?"

There was an agitated sigh from the other side of the door before it was flung open to reveal a very angry looking Alphonse. Even Inuyasha felt a stirring of fear deep within him, and he involuntarily took a step backwards.

"If you don't know why you're apologizing, why did you even come at all?" Al snapped at him.

"Because," Inuyasha huffed. "Ed was making this big stink about it and wouldn't leave me alone!"

Al froze, his expression softening. "You… You can talk to him?"

"Huh?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Well, he doesn't really _talk_ , I can just sort of… Feel what he's feeling."

"What's he feeling right now?"

Inuyasha frowned and tried tapping into the general area that he'd felt the furious feeling coming from earlier. "He's… sad, I guess. And lonely."

As the feelings of Ed swept over Inuyasha, he realized he knew the exact same sort of feeling. He'd felt it the last time Kagome had gone through the well. He kept forgetting that even though he and Ed were two seperate people, they were still the same soul. And he wasn't going to be able to have the chance to have a face-to-face talk with this Ed guy, if they even could manage that without tearing each other apart. So there was no way of him ever really getting to know Ed himself.

"Look, kid," Inuyasha said with a sigh. "Ling and Mei want me to trigger regressions for both of them, but how about after that, I let Ed back out until we get to this fiance of mine?"

"You can do that?" Al had wide eyes.

"Course," Inuyasha said with a careless shrug. "It works the same as making a person regress. You just trigger strong emotions from the lifetime you want. So you can just talk about memories that are important to Ed, and he'll come out. And I'll tell you what to talk about to bring me back out."

"So I can bring Ed back whenever I want?"

"Yeah, but don't be a jerk about it, got it?"

"Okay," Al said with a nod. He smiled at Inuyasha. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, don't mention it," Inuyasha said, scratching the back of his neck and looking at the floor. "I'm just tired of having you upset all the time. It's annoying."

"If that's what you have to tell yourself to sleep at night," Al said with a snort. Inuyasha snapped his head up.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing," Al said with a grin. "I'm just relieved that you don't actually hate me." Inuyasha sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Ya big idiot, I wouldn't still be here if I hated you, okay?"

* * *

 **Oh, Inuyasha, will you ever learn...?**

 **I must like you guys to update this often and this frequently. Thanks for the reviews so far, it's been awesome to get them and see that people other than me like this whole reincarnation in FMA concept.**

 **I also forgot to say last chapter that the whole naming concept I had Inuyasha talk about was based on something I heard briefly about old Japanese culture. But I didn't really have time to research it, and I figured since it's just fanfiction anyway, I'd just leave it as it was. If it's inaccurate, I'm sorry. We'll just claim it's a demon ritual if that's the case, yes?**

 **I still feel very obvious with my clues about who is who. But I'd love to see what guesses you have for who's the reincarnation of who in the story! I feel like Miroku and Sango should be fairly obvious...**


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